Calls for new voters’register; EC considering options — Chairman
The Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Mrs Charlotte Osei, has stated that the commission will consider the call for the compilation of a new voters’ register after weighing all the options.
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She told the Daily Graphic in an interview that the commission had received lots of proposals from political and civil society organisations for a new register and would consider its feasibility, as well as the cost implication before any final decision would be taken on the matter.
“We are looking at all the options and considering the cost involved in all the options and as a commission, we will take a decision,” she said.
She was speaking on the sidelines of a consultative meeting organised by the EC for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), Community Based Organisations (CBOs) Faith Based Organisations (FBAs) and the media in Kumasi.
Call
Mrs Osei said while some of the proposals were asking the EC to maintain the current register and not to entertain any call for a new one, others were also agitating for a new one.
Another group, she said, was asking for the register to be audited and cleaned up before the next parliamentary and presidential elections.
She said the commission was considering all those proposals and would soon come out with its decision.
Background
Early last month, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) wrote to the EC asking it to conduct a fresh registration of voters.
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According to the party, the electoral register in its current state was incurably flawed and cannot be relied on for the 2016 elections.
The party backed its call with the election petition and the Supreme Court’s declaration in the case of Abu Ramadan and Another vs.
The Electoral Commission and Attorney General that disallowed the use of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) cards as proof of qualification to register, making it unconstitutional, void and of no effect.
It said since it would be extremely difficult to purge the existing register of all the registrations affected by the Supreme Court decision, “it is our humble view that offering every potential voter a fresh opportunity to register will address this defect.”
However, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) disagreed with the NPP and maintained that the current register was the most accurate and reliable that the nation had ever produced and called on the EC to dismiss the NPP request.
The first Vice Chairman of the NDC, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, at a meeting with the Ashanti Regional Youth Wing of the party in Kumasi at the weekend described the call for a new register as ‘absurd.’
Turn-out
On the upcoming district level elections, the Director of Elections of the EC, Mr Samuel Tettey, told the forum that turn-out over the years had been very low and appealed to community leaders and public interest organisations to whip up the interest of the people to turn out in their numbers during the election.
Mr Tettey reminded the electorate that the assembly members would be in charge of the development of their communities, for which reason, he said, they needed to ensure that the right calibre of people were elected.
Reforms
He said as part of the electoral reforms, candidates had now been allowed to mount their own campaign platforms aside from the ones mounted for them by the EC.
This, Mr Tettey said, was to give the candidates the latitude to campaign at their own pace, thereby increasing their visibility.
That notwithstanding, he said the candidates may not need to mount all platforms and print lots of posters, contending that the notice of polls and the platforms mounted by the EC were enough for them.
Writer’s email: Kwadwo.donkor@graphic.com.gh
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